Legendary actress, Rita Moreno, was born Rosita Dolores Alverio on Dec 11, 1931 in Humacao, Puerto Rico. As of December 2017, Rita Moreno was 86 years old.

Early Life and Career

Rita Moreno was born Rosa Dolores Alverio on December 11th,
1931 in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Her father, Francisco Jose, was a farmer and her
mother, Rosa Maria, was a seamstress. After the pair divorced in the mid-1930s,
Rosa moved to New York, bringing her daughter along for ride. They settled in
the Bronx, where the five-year old Rita began taking dance lessons. Her
instructor was Paco Cansino, the uncle of Rita Hayworth. Clearly a natural
talent, it wasn't long before the young dancer was entertaining audiences with
her Camera Miranda Act at weddings and bar mitzvahs. She quickly moved into
acting and began working in children's theater. At age 11 Moreno worked on her
first film, dubbing Spanish-language versions of American movies. Two years
later the young actress would make her Broadway debut as Angelia in the play Skydrift. Now at the age of 14, Moreno
knew this was her calling and soon dropped out of school to concentrate her
time on show business.

Early Hollywood
Career

Sometime in the late 1940s Moreno caught the eye of an MGM
talent scout. She was brought to Louis B. Mayer, who signed Moreno to
multi-year contract. Her first role under the new contract was a small part the
Technicolor musical The Toast of New
Orleans. She then went on to play the young ingenue Zelda Zanders in Singin' in the Rain. Although Moreno was
able to build her career at MGM, it was defined by the racism that dictated her
early career. In films such as Jivaro,
Latin Lover, El Alamein and Garden of
Evil, she was cast as the fiery Latin sexpot and was defined more by her
ethnicity than her abilities. When not cast as the Hispanic sex-kitten stereotype,
she was then offered roles another "ethnic" character, playing everything from
Cajun to South Asian.

When her time at MGM was at an end, she signed on with
Twentieth Century Fox. Despite the change in scenery, the roles were no
different. In 1954 she played the sexy Cantina Singer in the western Garden of Evil and followed that up by
playing the naive Native American, Ula, in Seven
Cities of Gold. One film that
did manage to utilize the multi-talented actress was the role of Tuptin in the Walter Lang musical The King and I. Although film still had
her playing an exotic other, the role allowed Moreno to fully utilize her
talents as an actor and dancer. However, after filming The Deerslayer in 1957, Fox decided not to renew her contract.

West Side Story

After leaving Fox, Moreno remained in Hollywood. Although
film roles did not come her way for another three years, she did have an active
career on television. She appeared on a myriad of series, such as General Electric Theater, Zorro, The Red
Skeleton Hour and Climax. In 1961 Moreno was cast in Robert Wise's
big screen adaption of the hit Broadway musical West Side Story. In the film she played Anita, the girlfriend to
the Sharks' gang leader Bernardo. Although role gave Moreno another chance to
show audiences her skills as an actress and dancer, the part was still in the
realm of the hotheaded Latina stereotype. She would eventually go on to win the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, making her the first Hispanic
actress to take home Oscar gold.

Although Moreno had hoped winning something as prestigious
as an Academy Award would open doors to a wider ranger of parts, she was sadly
mistaken. She was still offered nothing but demeaning stereotypical trite.
Rather than accept, Moreno decided she would rather just move on and left
Hollywood to pursue a stage career.

After leaving Hollywood in 1961, it would be 7 years before
Moreno would return to film. In the mean time, she traveled to London and star
in the play She Loves Me. She returned
to New York and renewed her work on the Broadway stage. In 1964 she starred in
the Peter Kass's production of The Sign I
Sidney Burstein's Window. During this time Moreno met her husband, Dr.
Leonard Gordon, whom she would marry in 1965.

Moving Forward

The end of the 1960s and into 1970s was something of a
turning point in Moreno's career. Although most women find work more difficult
to come by as they age, the opposite seemed true for Moreno. She lost her
youthful "sexpot" appeal that defined her career in the 1950s and 60s but still
aged gracefully, retaining her nature beauty. Add all of this to the
Hollywood's growing progressive nature at the time; Moreno was finally freed of
the stereotypes that held her back for so long.

She returned movie making in 1968, starring as a drug addict
opposite Marlon Brando n the crime drama The
Night of the Following Day. She followed up starring opposite Alan Arkin in
the dark comedy Popi and then in the
mystery-drama Marlowe. In 1971 she appeared
as Jack Nicholson's favorite lady of the night, in the Mike Nichols comedy Carnal Knowledge. During this time
Moreno also remained busy on the Broadway stage, appearing in Last of the Red Hot Lovers and Gantry.

EGOT

In 1971 Moreno became a cast member on the children's
television series The Electric Company. It
often used sketch comedy and reoccurring characters to help further nurture
children's reading and writing skills. The cast would go on to win the 1972
Grammy for Best Recording for Children. She continued to appear on television
and Broadway. In 1974 she was cast as Googie Gomez in the Broadway farce The Ritz. The show was extremely
successful, playing for 400 nights. As for Moreno, she would walk away with a
Tony Award For Best Featured of Supporting Actress in a Play.

In 1977 Moreno guest starred as vulnerable prostitute, Rita
Capkovic, in a three-episode arch on the The
Rockford Files. The role won her a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstand Guest
Actress - Drama Series. With this award, Moreno became only the third person to
have the "grand slam" of American show business: The EGOT AKA winning a
competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. This is
an incredible feat in the entertainment industry and thus far only 12 people
have achieved this accomplishment.

1980s to Now

Since her EGOT win, Moreno has been working steadily in the
entertainment business for the past three and a half decades. A steady fixture
on television, she has guest starred on classic series such as The Love Boat, Golden Girls, The Cosby Show and
was a regular on the sitcom Nine to Five.
In the late 1990s she was frequent guest star on the gritty HBO prison
drama, Oz, as psychiatrist nun,
Sister Pete. The role help introduce Moreno to an entirely new generation of
television viewers. Outside of television she remained committed to the stage,
eventually starring in the gender-swapped version of the The Odd Couple. And in 1997 she returned to the London stage to try
her hand as the delusional former silver screen star, Norma Desmond, in Andrew
Lloyd Webbers' musical version of Sunset
BLVD.

All her hard work and struggle throughout her 7-decade
career culminated in 2004, when she was awarded the Presidential Medal of
Freedom from George W. Bush. She has since been presented with the National
Medal of Arts form Barack Obama in 2009, Hispanic Organization of Latin
actresses (HOLA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, the Latin Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award in 2012, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in
2013, and the Kennedy Center Honors Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award in
2015.

To this very day, the octogenarian shows no signs of
stopping. This year alone starred in the Steve Goldbloom film Remember Me and has made guest
appearances on the television series Grey's
Anatomy and Grace and Frankie. She
is currently filming the Netflix reboot of One
Day at a Time, set to air in 2017.

(Source: article by Minoo Allen for Classic Movie Hub).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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Rita Moreno was nominated for one Academy Award, winning for Best Supporting Actress for West Side Story (as Anita) in 1961.

Breaking Barriers:

By minooallen on Mar 31, 2017 From Classic Movie Hub Blog

Breaking Barriers
To quote Barack Obama at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors, [] is still a leading lady of her era, a trailblazer with courage to break through barriers and forge new paths. Thats not the only political powerhouse to show love to Moreno. Supreme Court Judge S... Read full article

, Happy Birthday, (2)

By C. S. Williams on Dec 11, 2013 From Classic Film Aficionados

At the age of 11, began her acting career dubbing voices for Spanish-language versions of American films. She had her debut in 1950′s “So Young So Bad”, her performances always rang true and her ability to dance and sing gave her film-work through the 50′s and ear... Read full article

, Happy Birthday,

By C. S. Williams on Dec 11, 2013 From Classic Film Aficionados

At the age of 11, began her acting career dubbing voices for Spanish-language versions of American films. She had her debut in 1950’s “So Young So Bad”, her performances always rang true and her ability to dance and sing gave her film-work through the 50’s and ear... Read full article

, Happy Birthday,

By C. S. Williams on Dec 11, 2013 From Classic Film Aficionados

At the age of 11, began her acting career dubbing voices for Spanish-language versions of American films. She had her debut in 1950’s “So Young So Bad”, her performances always rang true and her ability to dance and sing gave her film-work through the 50’s and ear... Read full article

: A Memoir

on Jul 8, 2013 From Journeys in Classic Film

Actress has solidified her spot in the pantheon of Hollywood heavy-hitters, despite her small list of film credits; as the first Latin actress to win an Academy Award, Moreno certainly can’t deny that Hollywood took notice her, regardless of their tendency to place her in sub par &... Read full article

She made a guest appearance on an episode of "Father Knows Best" (1954) ("Fair Exchange" #5.10, originally telecast Nov. 24, 1958). Rita played Chanthini, an exchange student from India who spends a weekend at the Anderson home with her college classmate Betty (Elinor Donahue).